There are many known systems for storing and dispensing medications and other small elements. Some of these systems are entirely mechanical, with selections by the user being made by hand. Other, more recent systems are either semi-automatic or automatic, with electronic controllers. Examples of such apparatus are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,546,901 to Buharazzi and U.S. Pat. No. 5,797,515 to Lift et al. Another apparatus is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,219,587, which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention.
The systems shown in the above patents, as well as other dispensing systems, have met with varying degrees of operational success and/or commercial acceptance. Most of the automated systems are complex in design and operation, relatively large and typically quite expensive. Further, many such systems are inefficient and unreliable. They also are too slow in output. For instance, typical known commercial systems are unable to meet the medication-dispensing requirements of a large hospital.
One significant disadvantage of conventional automatic dispensing systems is that they typically must be loaded by hand. Some systems include tubes or storage sleeves which contain a plurality of one item, but these must be periodically replaced, again by hand. In other systems, the individual items/elements to be dispensed must be hand-loaded on racks or hand-placed into bins.
Further, many dispensing systems are inherently limited to either one or a relatively few packaging configurations. This is typical if the elements are in the original manufacturer's package. In other cases, the original elements are either repackaged or overpackaged for accommodation by the system. The small number of different-sized boxes which can be accommodated by a particular system is a key operational consideration. Both repackaging and overpackaging, however, are inconvenient, expensive and time-consuming, even when carried out at the healthcare facility or other facility which uses small packaged elements. There is typically a significant ambiguity if not antipathy relative to, for example, overpackaging carried out at a user's facility.
Lastly, in all medication-dispensing systems, as well as for other packaged elements, there exists the issue of returned elements which have not been used. These returns must typically be inspected and then loaded, again by hand, if suitable for restocking. In some cases, returns are handled completely separately, with the returns supplying a separate storage device apart from the main dispensing system.
It would be convenient and cost effective to have a single machine which could accept returns, along with original items from the manufacturer, process and store all the items automatically, and then dispense them automatically upon command, i.e. a single apparatus which has the capability of both storing elements, including, but not limited to, medications and other medical elements, and then dispensing them individually for use by a patient or other user.